Club past activities

The University Foundation organizes lots of activities for the members of the Club. Below you can see short reviews of some past activities. A more complete list can be seen on the French or Dutch web pages.

The debate was introduced by Professor Vincent Blondel, rector of UCL (in French).

The disclosures of the world wide activities of the NSA and the possibilities of the social media have shown the threats to the citizens and their privacy, usually characterized by « Big data, Big business, Big Brother ». The speaker, a specilist of complex netowrks, will discuss the state of the art of the technology and the possibilities big data offer to companies and the challenges to the citizens and the politicians.

’How good it is to rest a while under a tree when the sun is hot and sultry.’ These words, the first in the libretto, immediately set the tone: let’s prolong the summer with the help of the warm breeze that Damiano Michieletto and his team let waft through this score. This is a production that does justice to the freshness which Donizetti, who dominated Italian opera in the 1830s with numerous new works, injected into the melodramma genre. His L’Elisir d’amore is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of 19th century opera buffa. This work has everything: melodic inventiveness to match the character portraits, contrast, and keenly felt pathos alongside comic irony. And, of course, the elixir of love also works its magic: not only on Nemorino, who wants to win Adina for himself, Tristan-style, but also on audiences, which have loved this opera ever since its first performance in 1832.

"È scherzo od è follia ?’ A joke or pure madness, or is one really looking into the future in Un Ballo in maschera ? This work is a masterpiece of variety, of the fusion of differing stylistic elements, a work that relates first to the French opera comique and then to the Italian dramatic style, with characters who are among the most powerful Verdi ever created. The censor forced Verdi to switch from the original historical context – the murder of the Swedish king during a masked ball in 1792 – to the Boston of the 17th century, but his human and political message is no less forceful. The director Alex Ollé and his company La Fura dels Baus set the action in the near future, in the atmosphere of Orwell’s 1984, where power is totalitarian, while all the characters wear their masks throughout the performance in a bankrupt society founded on hypocrisy.

Lunchat the University Foundation, followed by a short lecture on "Bibliophily and the Art of the Book", an introduction to the exhibition “Op reis in mijn bibiotheek - Voyages dans ma bibliothèque”and a guided tour of the exhibition in the Royal Library with Charles Prion Pansius, Vice-chairman of "The Royal Belgian Association of Bibliophiles and Iconophiles" .

Third activity in the cycle of lunch debates on the theme «A World of Cities» which the University Foundation organises, in collaboration with "la Fondation pour l’environnement urbain Pierre Laconte", for the members of the Foundation and also for a larger public (faculties, economic, social and cultural organisations, ...).

This debate was introduced by Paola Vigano.

Paola Vigano teaches at Harvard university and the university of Venice. With the recently deceased Bernardo Secchi she realized numerous urbanistic development projects in the world, also in Belgium (development plan for Antwerp, the project "SpoorNoord", the design of the city center of Kortrijk, and a vison on Brussels 2040). Se will dwell on the main ideas which underly her projects, her personal views on urbanism, as well as other ilmportant international views such as «Internationale Bau Austellungen»

Guided visit to the exhibition «Marc Chagall» in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, preceeded by a lunch at the University Foundation at 12.30 pm.

Over 200 works of Marc Chagall have been gathered worldwide for this major retrospective exhibition. From early paintings of 1908 to his final, monumental works of the 1980s, the show offers a rich overview of the painter’s artistic career.

The exhibition presents the main themes of his work, in particular his connection with Jewish culture, the iconography of the shtetl, folk traditions, but also his discovery of 17th century literature such as La Fontaine, the revelation of light and the particular use of colour.

Special attention is given to his Russian period at a time his personal style stands out in an avant-garde art scene featured by the cubist revolution.

The original poetic language of Chagall is faithfully revived and the visitors are immersed in his amazing artistic world influenced by different cultures and traditions.